A question on Quora asked why millenials were “so left wing?” My observation, after a 20 year career teaching them, is that the older millenials , who are now in their early 30s, are not “left wing” by traditional measures – theyʻre libertarians. This is because they grew up at the tail end, or in the aftermath of the culture wars. Basically, the left won the culture war (no censorship) and the right won the economic war (neoliberalism is now unrivaled) – this is a recipe for libertarians, liberal on social issues and neoliberal on economic issues.

The Occupy Wall St. movement – itʻs local manifestation shown here – caused a shift in political and economic attitudes among millenials

Itʻs only the younger millenials, now mainly in their 20s, who are traditionally left wing, and thereʻs a very clear reason for it: the 2008 market crash and ensuing “Great recession.” Michael Moore documented this shift in one of his films when he showed that the support for “Socialism” was around 40%, led by millenials. Prior to the floor falling out from under the economy, the idea of socialism was a non-starter. Now, an actual socialist, Bernie Sanders, won 20 states and nearly clinched the Democratic nomination.

One response to “Streaking – Day 3: More on Millenials”

Fun seeing my photo used here (and no prob with copyright or any of that). The photo was taken in the wee hours or December 30, 2011, after City of Honolulu crews demolished the encampment. It went right back up. That particular encampment holds the record for the longest continuously occupied encampment in the Occupy Movement at over 2 years of continuous occupation. People had probs with the Occupy, and the movement at that corner was officially “DeOccupy Honolulu.” This photo (if I can paste a URL) shows the same corner a year and a half later…